Insecurity: Senate Moves To Amend Constitution And Allow For Creation Of State Police Within Two Weeks

Senate in plenary (File Photo)

Senate Moves To Allow For State And Community Policing

The Senate has promised to revisit calls for State Police and design framework for mopping up 350 million light weapons suspected to be in circulation within Nigeria.

Naija News learnt that President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, made this known while welcoming senators to plenary after a three-week Eid-el-Fitr recess. The plan by the Senate comes after years of calls for the creation of state police and debate over the issue.

Today, my colleagues and I in the 8th Senate resolved to begin the process of amending the Constitution to allow for the creation of State and Community Police. This is following our debate on solutions to the killings across the country. https://t.co/KHaFovl52G pic.twitter.com/M7KJybDL27

— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) July 3, 2018

Recent killings in several states have revived the debate over state police with several governors lamenting, over time, about their helplessness to provide security for residents of the state. In reaction to the killings, the Senate had previously called for more decisive action with some Senators demanding the removal of the service chiefs.

UPDATE: Security: Senate Begins Work on Creation of State and Community Police. The Senate President Speaks.https://t.co/imOc8wRGsD

— Archive of the President of the 8th Senate (@SP8thNGRSenate) July 3, 2018

The decision of the Senate to amend the Constitution in favour of state and community police followed a debate on the killings across the country and in Plateau State – after a Point of Order raised by former Plateau Governor, Senator Jonah Jang.

In his comments, the Senate President condemned the killings once again and said it was necessary for the Senate to condemn it and play its role in ensuring the security of lives and property.

“We have talked about the fact that whether these killings were initial acts of aggression or reprisal attacks, it is clear that either way, it is totally unacceptable and we must condemn it in all totality,” he said.

“Secondly, these are acts of criminality and we should not encourage any other colouration to it, be it religious or otherwise. This is criminality. And as such, we have a role to ensure that we must address this criminality to see how we can fight it.

“We have spoken on many platforms and made suggestions to the Executive on the fact that there is a need for an urgent review of the security architecture of the nation.”

Having made suggestions and listened to security agencies over the killings, Saraki said it was important for the lawmakers to do their own part.

“We as the Senate must come up with our own actions. We do not need to flog the issue. We have told the Executive what to do. We have told them privately and we have told them publicly. However, on our own part, we must decide on what we need to do.”

Consequently, the Senate agreed to condemn the terrorist attacks, mass killings and displacement of the people and occupation of their central homes and farmlands, urge the executive to overhaul the security architecture of the country and to put in place a better security action plan and decisively tackle violent terror attacks threatening the continuous existence of communities in the North Central geopolitical zone and indeed Nigeria.

Recall that I promised to initiate a bill to create state police. The Senate has also given the Senate Committee on Constitution Review the go ahead to initiate the bill immediately.… https://t.co/7LlMoRloKx

— Ike Ekweremadu (@iamekweremadu) July 3, 2018

The issue has been referred to the Senate committee on constitution review who have been charged to ensure a speedy discussion and presentation of report to the Senate.